Slashdot Mirror
The Text Message Typo That Landed a Man In Jail
Barence writes "A British man was jailed for 18 months for accidentally sending an explicit text message to his entire address book. 24-year-old swimming coach Craig Evans intended to send a text message to his girlfriend asking her for sex. Instead, the message was accidentally sent to his entire BlackBerry address book, including two girls, aged 13 and 14, from his swimming class. He was subsequently arrested and charged with 'causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity,' and – incredibly – jailed for 18 months at Birmingham Crown Court in July. Yesterday, an appeal's court freed Evans, although he wasn't cleared — the sentence was merely reduced to a nine-month suspended jail term."
My Bullshit detector went off as soon I read the summary. You can't send a text to all contacts with BB (just checked mine now). The only way to do this is to create a group, add all your contacts, then send a txt to the group. Hardly the sort of thing you would do accidently. Also the Daily Mail is one of those "President Kidnapped by Aliens!" publications. Why we keep getting Daily Mail stories on Slashdot is beyond me. Wake up Slashdot Editors.
This. Even as an American I had contact with my several of my teachers outside of school. They were role models and sources of advice when I was in school, and friends now that I am an adult. Heck, last time I was in town I had a beer with my old art teacher and we bitched about clients together.
I've been in a situation just as you describe.
A month or so ago my neighbor's daughter knocked on my door. It was raining and cold and she had been locked out of her house. I have a daughter who does not live with me full time, so I let the neighbor girl in and sent her to my daughter's room to change into dry clothes and hang out until her mom to got home.
An hour or so later her mom arrives home and was very grateful... until she learned that my daughter wasn't living with me that week. My thanks? She called the police. I wasn't arrested or charged with anything, but an officer did arrive to take statements.
Next time her kid gets locked out, she can catch pneumonia.
Your plausible deniability story sounds possible.
For use as a bizarre story plot in a tv crime drama.
But this is reality, where simpler explanations are more likely explanations. Where people are generally decent and compliant with social norms, and those rare few who aren't try not to broadcast it to everyone they know.
I would bet if he had accidentally killed those two girls with his car, he would have gotten less jail time.
I did google - ended up here. This is scary beyond belief. I don't even know how that can be called justice. I know that is not at the same scale but that certainly put our outrage against some aspect of justice in other countries in perspective.